Ny other interests and hobbies besides coins?

[Gabe]

I saw a thread similar to this one in another board, and thought it was a good idea, and decided to start this one.

Besides coin collecting, I also play sports, including volleyball. I play volleyball at Florida International University in the intrammural program at school.

I also play piano and study music theory. I started playing piano about 1 1/2 years ago, so I have a long way to go, but can play some Bethoveen, Mozart and some modern songs.

Let's hear your tales!

[coop]

I've played the guitar since 1964 and played in numerous bands playing guitar, bass or drums. Now I'm involved in karaoke when I have days off from work.
Sports.... well in high school I was in wrestling, Baseball and Track, but at my age... well not much going on there anymore. Now all I can wrestle is grandkids....
At a young age of 14 (1964) I started coin collecting and stamp collecting. But it wasn't till about 1999 that I started getting serious about collecting. I guess when you have kids at home, coin collecting isn't in the budget. Wish I knew then what I know now. I would have thousands of rolls in my possesion rather than hundreds.
Well I'm going out on a limb here..... LOL Might as well have a face to go with the name.

[rollmeupabe]

I have been delinquent in my coin searching for the last couple of months because I have been pursuing a new passion - genealogy. Similar to die variety searching, it has a thrill of the hunt feeling when you finally track down an ancestor. So far I have added over 400 people to my family tree and have ancestors going back to the 1700's in England, early 1800's in Ireland and Scotland. I would recommend this for anyone who needs a coin break once in awhile.

I am a decade behind Coop but had a very similar experience. Started collecting in the late 60's on my paper route when people use to pay me in Kennedy half dollars, mercury dimes and wheat pennies. If I only knew then what I know now I could probably be retired!

My sports have always been individual exercise related vs. team sports - swimming, walking. I started working at 14 to save for college.

3-4 years ago when cleaning my closet I cam across my shoe box and cigar box of coins and decided to check out what they were worth. Instead of selling it all for $2500 I have probably spent double that buying. My advice to the newbie is don't start buyng until you define your exact interest. Otherwise you can spend a lot on whimsical purchases like mint sets, proof sets, etc.

[Bob P]

This is a great way to learn more about our folks here on the forum.
I have been into collecting since I was 12 (38 years ago), but haven't been as heavy into varieties until 1990. I am also an avid woodworker, having a shop in my garage. I build furniture primarily.
When I was younger, I played baseball, and went from Babe Ruth leagues, all the way through 1 year of college on varsity, and semi-pro leagues. I also played ball for the Air Force during the early years of my total of 24 years in the military. I used to parachute jump for fun. I have over 170 jumps to my credit, but older age and a few 'not so soft' landings has forced me to abandon that. My last jump was in 1993. Other than that, I have enjoyed many things to a lesser degree including gardening and plumbing.

[Steven]

I have spent a few years working on genealogy also, mostly on the wifes's side. Thousands of cousins. Kinda like coins, always coming up with new ones to check out and verify.

I still have problems getting photos though

[rollmeupabe]

Steven,

Old pictures was the initial experience that got me interested in genealogy. My mother lost her only brother/sibling this year. At his wake they put together some picture boards which were from the 1930's-1960's. Later I was "home" (still think of my parent house as home) and spent some time with my mother and father skimming through old photo albums. My mother had some fabulous pictures of my grandfather in the teens and twenties when he was in his teens and twenties.

My best experience was discovering my moter's great grandfather was a minister in Virginia from 1844-1867. He helped found a church in Lynchburg which is still there today. I found a website for the church and sent an e-mail asking if they had any info on him. They sent me a story written about and and an artists sketch from around 1850. That was a great day.

[Steven]

rollmeupabe,
My mother in law was a member of the draft board during WWII and after her passing I ran across several letters and had them posted on a genealogy site. I found them very interesting to say the least. I made an attempt to transcribe them to which I found to be a bit difficult.
During this period she received possibly hundreds, I don't know for sure, of V-Mails from my father in law. Also interesting reading.
Steven


http://www.rootsweb.com/~mogenweb/letters.htm

[Gabe]

Wanted to ad-

Like Bob, I have some exprience in woodworking, and have built some of my furniture at home, but desided to focus more on fiberglass because of the fact that you can be a bit more careless with it than with wood. With fiberglass, you can messup and fix it. In woodworking, you mess-up and need to start all over...

I also surf, and in fact just came from surfing today. I have been surfing only a couple of years, but can now surf decent size waves.

[wavysteps2003]

Second hobby, growing things. Particularly BONSAI (miniture trees) and orchids. Just took these pictures of a couple of orchids that are in bloom now. I am lucky to be in Florida or these guys would never survive.

[img]

This one is a cattleya and has 63 blooms on it, each one measuring around three inches around and the flowers will last about three to four weeks and then it is wait until next year.


[/img]

This one is a dendrobium. Didn't count the flowers, but like the cattleya, it only blooms once a year.

Okay, now my secret is out, LOL.

WAVYSTEPS2003

[Earwig]

Before my second back surgery i was an avid hunter and fisherman plus played softball almost everyday. After the first surgery i became a avid Nascar fan, gardener and started hunting coin varities mostly rpm's. Now after this last 1 i have not much to do but watch Nascar and search and search and search. But i do have 3 wonderful kids that say my garden will grow this year. And after a few month im sure ill be as good as new

Regards
Eric

[Bob P]

BJ...
Those are absolutely beautiful orchids. It's got to be a thrill to see how your TLC to those plants rewards you with blooms like those. Very well done!

[coop]

I was looking at that image and trying to see an image of Wavysteps, but just flowers... We plant stuff here, but mainly raise DUST

[coppercoins]

My interests are mainly centered on numismatics and things related - such as the art work I have been working on. I used to care to do other subjects in art, and may again some time in the future, but haven't done much of it over the past 20 years...actually nothing other than the portraits displayed on cdaughtrey.com.

My other interests are mainly in meteorlogy and astronomy (stars, not horoscope). I like to chase a good thunderstorm, I love a deep snow, and I enjoy watching the planets and moon traverse the blanket of stars that's slowly eroding away in my back yard due to city expansion.

The only other thing I hav really found myself enjoying was a touch of creative writing - I never had a clue I could do it until college and having to do it for a grade. I wrote a couple of knockout short stories. I also didn't do badly when told to do a research paper. So I guess I'm a decent writer...I'm certainly anal enough to do it.

I'm not much of a sports person any more. I used to eat it up and really enjoyed all of them except basketball. Since the baseball strike and retirement of my favorite player (Brett) I haven't followed baseball at all. I still watch the football playoffs and superbowl, but overall I don't care too much about the regular season. I'll break from what I'm doing to watch the World Series or the Stanley Cup playoffs, but generally if it's a regular season game I couldn't much care less.

[wavysteps2003]

It seems that quite a few men have a fasination with thunder storms, myself included and in the summer when the sea breeze collide we do get some beauties down here.

Your mentioning of stars brought me back to a night awhile back and the only night rainbow that I ever witnessed. An eerie sight to behold with spectral shades of blue arched against the pitch black clouds and the full moon highlighting it all. I shall never forget that.

Now the snow you can keep. If I have been in cold weather more than 14 days in the last 39 years, it is to much for me.

Regards,
WAVYSTEPS

[Gabe]

Weather is very fascinating. The best thing about the hurricane season is all the coverage each storm has in our local news stations in Florida. Practically, everyone in South Florida is a meteorologist in some form or another.

Now... as Im sure that most of you know, living in S Florida during the hurricane season has its down-sides.